What new music, live albums, reissues (regular, deluxe or super-deluxe) and tours are heading our way between now and All Hallows Eve?  Check out the exhaustive (and potentially exhausting) sampling of promised progressive goodies — along with other personal priorities — below.  Click on the titles for pre-order links — whenever possible, you’ll wind up at the online store that gets as much money as possible directly to the musicians.

 

 

• August:
  • Dave Kerzner, Static Live Extended Edition: recorded at the 2017 Progstock festival.  Kerzner’s complete Static album in concert, plus selected live highlights & new studio tracks.  Pre-orders ship in late August.

• August 30:
  • Sons of Apollo, Live with the Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony: recorded at Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s Roman amphitheatre (the site of previous live efforts from Anathema and Devin Townsend).  Available in Blu-Ray, 3 CD + Blu-Ray, and 3 CD + DVD + Blu Ray versions.
  • Tool, Fear Inoculum: Tool’s first album in 13 years.  Available via digital download, as well as “a deluxe, limited-edition CD version (which) features a 4” HD rechargeable screen with exclusive video footage, charging cable, 2 watt speaker, a 36-page booklet and a digital download card.”  Really. 

 

 

• September:
  • In Continuum, Acceleration Theory Part 2: Annihilation:  the sci-fi epic continues, featuring an all-star prog lineup: Dave Kerzner, Matt Dorsey, Nick D’Virgilio, Marco Minnemann, Randy McStine, Gabriel Agudo, John Wesley, Jon Davison, Leticia Wolf, Fernando Perdomo and more.  Pre-orders ship in late September.

• September 6:
  • Miles Davis, Rubberband: previously unreleased 1985-86 sessions, with Miles exploring hip-hop & funk grooves.  Finished by the original producers & drummer Vince Welburn, Jr. plus contemporary guest vocalists. On CD & LP.
  • Rise Again:  Brett William Kull (Echolyn, Grey Eye Glances, and Francis Dunnery’s New Progressives) and J.D. Beck (Beck-Fields, The Scenic Route, author & playwright), team up for this InsideOut release.

• September 13:
  • Chicago Transit Authority (50th anniversary remix): Chicago’s thoroughly psychedelic, proto-progressive double-album debut from 1969.  If you only know the hits, you know nothing — this ain’t what you think.  On CD & LP.

• September 20:
  • King Crimson, Audio Diary 2014-2018: Five CDs (one per year) of hot live Crimson in a limited-edition box.

• September 27 (or, the day the floodgates open):
  • The Beatles, Abbey Road (50th anniversary remix): Giles Martin continues his run at remixing the Fabs’ catalog, following Sgt. Pepper and The White Album.  Available in 1 CD, 2 CD Deluxe, 4 Disc Super Deluxe, 1 LP, 1 Picture Disc and 3 LP Deluxe editions.
  • John Coltrane, Blue World: another newly-discovered session by Coltrane’s Classic Quartet, commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada for an unused film soundtrack.  One new tune plus alternate takes on Coltrane standards.  On CD & LP.
  • District 97, Screens: the Chicago quintet’s 4th album.  A new line-up that brings a sleek jazz-fusion edge to D97’s potent prog/metal brew.  Watch for a review soon!
  • Echo in the Canyon: the DVD or Blu-Ray of Andrew Slater’s acclaimed documentary on the early Laurel Canyon sound.  Jakob Dylan fronts a band of West Coast session kings (including Dave Kerzner sideman Fernando Perdomo) on new versions of classics from the Byrds, the Beach Boys and more.
  • The Steve Howe Trio, New Frontier: the Yes guitarist gets jazzy in organ trio format. Three tracks co-written with founding Yes drummer Bill Bruford. On CD & LP.
  • Opeth, In Cauda Venenum: the heavy proggers’ “lucky 13th” album.  Available with English or Swedish singing — or double disc sets with both languages — on CD, LP and Picture Disc.  Not to mention a super-deluxe box with 2 CDs + 2 LPs + Blu-Ray.

 

 

• October:
  • King Crimson, Complete 1969: every surviving recording from Crimson’s first year, including studio sessions, live shows and the debut album In the Court of the Crimson King (with a new 5.1 remix).  The capstone of Discipline Global Mobile’s CD + DVD + Blu-Ray box set series!  Pre-orders coming soon.

• October 4:
  • Flying Colors, Third Degree:  Available in CD, 2 CD Limited, 2 LP & 2 Blue LP Limited editions.
  • Wilco, Ode to Joy: Chicago avant-rockers’ 11th studio album.  Available on CD & LP.  There’s also a Deluxe LP edition (the most expensive thing listed here) with an art book featuring “collages and unique hand assembled paper constructions that animate and reveal album lyrics including pages engineered with pull out die cut pockets, spinning wheels, paper doors, and unfolding gatefold spreads.”  (Said Jeff Tweedy to Maynard James Keenan, “Hold my beer …”)

• October 11:
  • Bent Knee, You Know What They Mean: bracingly fresh art-rock, previewed by the Boston sextet on their spring tour.   On CD & LP.

• October 18:
  • Jethro Tull, Stormwatch (The 40th Anniversary Force 10 Edition): Steven Wilson’s final Tull remix anchors this 4 CD + 2 Audio DVD box.  Plus 15 non-album tracks and a complete live show recorded at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

• October 25:
  • Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited Band & Orchestra: Live at the Royal Festival Hall:  2 CDs + Blu-Ray, featuring Genesis & Hackett classics performed with the Heart of England Orchestra.  Pre-orders coming soon.
  • The Kinks, Arthur, or The Decline & Fall of the British Empire (50th anniversary edition): available as 1 CD, 2 CDs, 2 LPs. or 4 CD + 4 singles Deluxe Edition (which includes “The Great Lost Dave Davies Album”).
  • Bruce Soord, All This Will Be Yours: the Pineapple Thief mainman’s 2nd solo album, an “observational record” structured as two linear pieces.  Available on CD, LP or as a 2 CD + DVD deluxe set.

• On Tour:
  • District 97 – the Screening Tour hits Europe & D97’s hometown from September 30 through October 17.
  • Steve Hackett – touring the USA & Canada from September 12 through October 20, followed by the UK from November 2 through 29.  Hackett’s current “Genesis Revisited” tour features the complete Selling England by the Pound album, plus a celebration of Spectral Mornings’ 40th anniversary and highlights from Hackett’s new At the Edge of Light.  (See you in Grand Rapids on October 3?)
  • Flying Colors – touring the USA & Europe (select cities only) from September 5 through December 14.
  • King Crimson – Crimson’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Tour comes to the Americas from August 23 through October 13.  (See you in Chicago on September 10?)
  • The Pineapple Thief – Bruce Soord, Gavin Harrison & company embark on the Thief’s first North America/Mexico tour from November 19 through December 14.  (See you in Detroit on November 30 or Chicago on December 1?)

 

— Rick Krueger